This isn’t so much a news item as a “Congress finally figured it out” item. A preliminary report by the National Research Council, recently revealed to congress, shows that of 58 Toyota “black box” event data recorders from crashes which occurred during the recall scandal

35 showed that at the moment of impact, the driver hadn’t depressed the brake pedal at all. Fourteen more showed partial braking, while nine showed the brake depressed at the “last second” before the crash.

There were a handful of other results where the brake was pressed early and let go, or in which both the gas and brake pedals were pressed at the same time. There also was one case of pedal entrapment by a floor mat.

The final ‘conclusion’ is scheduled to be released in the ‘fall of 2011’.

http://tinyurl.com/39ux2nn

From NHTSA’s point of view nobody would care by that time if they were right or wrong about this witch hunt, and Toyota’s name would have been dragged along in the mud long enough. So win-win for them, and we shouldn’t expect any exonerations beyond what has been reported on already until that time.

Its literally one sentence long. They’ve hitherto had volumes to say on the subject and have been relentless but they can come up with no more then one spiteful sentence when they are contradicted; “Initial probe finds no new Toyota safety issue beyond accelerator, mat problems.”

What intrigues me is that 5 of the 58 data recorders failed to work. That’s a nearly 10% failure rate. Unless the 5 units were damaged by the crash (e.g., by water or fire), or didn’t record because the airbag did not deploy, there’s a quality problem.

Although I’m convinced that driver error and dealer concierge error (re floormats) caused most if not all of the SUA accidents, one question remains. How does one determine whether the black box’s record that the gas pedal was pressed is an indication of the human pressing the pedal, the floormat pressing the pedal, or the electronic poltergeist tricking the computer into thinking the pedal is pressed? Since the black box just looks at the electrical signals from the gas pedal, it has no way to distinguish between the above three cases, correct?

Many of the so called SUA complaints may be fraud. You too can get in on the fun by creating your own Toyota complaint even if you have never been in a Toyota. Just go to the NHTSA site and make one up. It will be counted as a complaint.

While I steadfastly follow the advice given to me as a young lad, that I should “believe EVERY rumor” and thus would like to believe that this whole brouhaha was a creation of the Obama administration to save Government Motors, Toyota really did not do themselves any favors with their charade of pretending that the black boxes were unreadable. Except, of course, by the special reader at my girlfriend’s house. In Canada. You wouldn’t know her, she goes to a different school. She’s a model. In Europe. They have different magazines there. And different OBD readers too.

How was that Toyota’s “charade” instead of bad reporting by the WSJ? As the link notes, Toyota themselves denied that the black boxes were unreadable when TTAC asked. Of course, you can just choose to believe a random unsourced rumor about a random poorly sourced story.

One problem when you “believe EVERY rumor” is that you have to believe contradictory things.

It’s about time we started making the driver’s test a little more difficult to weed these mouth breathers out. As a motorcyclist I realize not everyone is cut out to ride a motorcycle, it’s time we realize not everyone is suited to driving either.

Somedude – it’s very flattering to know that people think Toyota has in some way shape or form paid me for something I did. The fact is they have not. I work in the automotive industry, not for it, a concept the paranoid delusional are unwilling or unable to comprehend.